Janet's Playlist

The Warwick’s Staff is a rich and diverse group of individuals with a variety of tastes that appeal to readers across the board. For years we have papered our store with personalized book recommends, to the point that many of our fantastic customers know which booksellers read what, and whose recommends you most identify with. Now, for the first time we will dedicate a display wall to individual booksellers, displaying a small selection of their favorite reads, both current and classic, aptly called The Bookseller’s Playlist. This week we are featuring Janet’s Playlist. Janet has been at Warwick’s since 2003, and when not sharing her expertise in the Children’s Department, she is avidly reading novels written by some of the best and brightest authors around. If you haven’t had a chance to check it out in-store, here are some of the books Janet loves right now.

Leaving Everything Most Loved by Jacqueline Winspear
I am a huge fan of Jacqueline Winspear and her indomitable heroine, Maisie Dobbs. So of course, I’m thrilled that her newest novel is one of her best! Leaving Everything Most Loved finds Maisie delving into the murder of a woman from India and, as always, challenging herself, and expanding her horizons further.

The Burgess Boys by Elizabeth Strout
The Burgess Boys is first and foremost a book about family. Two brothers and one sister are forever bound by the tragic circumstances of their father's death and their hardscrabble upbringing in Maine. Each suffers through trials and tribulations both public and private that will eventually bind them together stronger than ever. In true Elizabeth Strout style, this is not a sugar-coated fantasy family, but flesh and blood people whose characters are so finely drawn you'll feel like you know them. This Pulitzer Prize-winning author has surpassed herself in this timely and eloquent novel.

Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver
Dellarobia Turnbow is a young wife and mother already too tied down and trapped in her tiny Appalachian town. On her way to an ill-fated meeting, she witnesses a natural phenomenon. What she cannot understand, she considers a life-changing miracle for herself, her family, and the townspeople. The flight of the monarchs through the Blue-Ridge Mountains is not only a comment on climate change, but also a beautifully written and heart-warming story of a girl searching for more than what life has dealt her. Barbara Kingsolver at her best! I loved it!

Waiting for Sunrise by William Boyd
Meet Lysander Rief, a young Londoner staying in Vienna pre-World War I. Follow him as he enjoys the pleasures of the beautiful European capital. While there, he becomes fluent in German, enters psychotherapy, and begins an obsessive affair with a beautiful, if eccentric artist. Ensnared in one twist of fate after another, he’s spirited back to England and forced into dangerous undercover work for the War Office—his success is essential not only to the war effort, but to his personal salvation. This is William Boyd at his suave and intriguing best!

The Dovekeepers by Alice Hoffman
Four powerful women tell the stories of their harrowing and arduous journeys to the Masada-the last Jewish stronghold against the Roman invasion in Judea 70 C.E. The engrossing narrative tells how the women came to depend on each other in a life and death struggle. Shrouded in the mysteries of the ancient past, where religion, magic, and superstition were intimately intertwined, The Dovekeepers is a powerfully written and riveting saga of tragic destiny and hope. We were enthralled from beginning to end!

The Child’s Child by Barbara Vine (aka Ruth Rendell)

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton
Last night I dreamt of Milderhurst - the castle that takes center stage in Kate Morton’s much anticipated new novel, Distant Hours. When publisher’s assistant, Edie Burchill sets out to uncover the origin of a classic children’s tale set in the castle, her research reveals more than she ever expected, including secrets involving her own mother’s past. Long ago mysteries and half-truths involving the castle’s inhabitants and their personal tragedies are brought to light and finally laid to rest. As sweeping and dramatic as the classic, Rebecca, The Distant Hours is finely wrought and enthralling to the very end.

Afterwards by Rosamund Lupton
Clear your schedule because you won't want to stop reading this once you start! Rosamund Lupton has done it again. If you loved Sister then you love the style of storytelling that she has now perfected. The finely tuned plot of Afterwards twists and turns weaving timely and relevant women's issues into the story of a mother and daughter locked in a harrowing struggle between life and death. What really happened at the children's school? How will the truth play out? Danger flares and tension mounts in every page-turning moment in this dramatic and compelling literary thriller that answers every mother's question: How far would you go to protect your children?

The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry by Rachel Joyce

Life After Life by Kate Atkinson
Indescribably well-written, this beautifully constructed novel is a miracle of beginnings and endings. Ursula Todd’s life in all its permutations will keep you engrossed and guessing—because after all, who among us really knows on which point our destiny is balanced? I almost never re-read a book, but I’m looking forward to reading Life After Life again and again!

Before the Poison by Peter Robinson


Keep your eyes peeled for more Bookseller Playlists in the upcoming weeks and months!